CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY Class __i_A3i CopyrightN? COFnUGHT DEPOSm CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY THE CLEVELAND OF TODAY AND TOMORROW IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE CLEVELAND OF YESTERDAY CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY cyf Qhronicle of Hearts that Hoped, zMinds that Planned and Hands that 'Toiled, to (iMal^ a Qity " Qreat and Qlorious'' WRITTEN BY JAMES WALLEN AFTER DATA BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM M GREGORY PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM TAYLOR SON & CO TO COMMEMORATE ITS GOLDEN JUBILEE APRIL 1920 ■C L W/J CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY IS A CLEVELAND-MADE BOOK ITS TYPOGRAPHY WAS ARRANGED BY HORACE CARR OF CLEVELAND ITS PRINTING WAS EXECUTED BY THE LEZIUS PRINTING CO OF CLEVELAND COPYRIGHTED 192O BY WM TAYLOR SON & CO MOTION PICTURE AND ALL OTHER RIGHTS RESERVED MAY 14 !920 ©C!.A566987 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I The Kingdom of Gold I CHAPTER II Lincoln -Hearted Men Ii CHAPTER III Taming the Wilderness . . CHAPTER V Mastery of the Inland Seas 23 CHAPTER IV Golden Eggs in Many Baskets • • • 33 45 CHAPTER VI The Lines on Ohio's Map • • • • 55 CHAPTER VII Cleveland the Cradle of Invention . . ^y CHAPTER VIII Cleveland's Golden Facade .... 81 CHAPTER IX For Other Books in Other Times . . 97 CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER I THE KINGDOM OF GOLD OLD is the symbol of adventure — the unresting urge that stirs men's souls. Francois de Orlenna, who crossed the South American continent from ocean to ocean in 1540, wrote: "Having eaten our boots and saddles, boiled with a few wild herbs, we set out to reach the Kingdom of Gold." The name Orlenna should be set down as a synonym for optimist. Our gratitude must forever enshrine heroes who ignore hardship and "set out to reach the Kingdom of Gold." In 1679, Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle passed by a vast area of Great Lakes land. He considered it French territory. He went down the Mississippi, probably exploring part of the Ohio river on his way. The fertile land, afterward known as the West- ern Reserve, which failed to halt La Salle, 1 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY became the goal of others as brave but less erratic than the harsh French explorer, who met death at the hands of his own embittered fol- lowers. La Salle never reigned in his Golden Kingdom. The strip of land, now the site of Cleveland and its environs, along the shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, was a part of the section first held by the French, who laid lead plates along the Ohio River to mark the southern limits of their claim. It was secured for England by British arms and diplomacy in 1763- The "merry monarch," Charles II, followed the poHcy of granting tracts of land to companies for development. Thus, Connecticut colony re- ceived a marvellously generous grant extending westward to the Pacific. The royal ignorance of geography, being as great as the country was extensive, caused no end of controversy. The Revolutionary War, winning America for the colonists on the ideal of equaHty of men and nations, brought the grants to an issue among the states. Washington and Jefferson saw in them a peril to the new nation dedicated to liberty and justice. The claims of Connecticut were presented with such finesse and skill that the state obtained a tract of land four times the size of Rhode Island, consisting of three million acres. The THE KINGDOM OF GOLD 3 enthusiasts were intent on forming a state and calling it New Connecticut. However, the name Western Reserve persisted. This territory in which Cleveland is located was secured by the colonial capitaHsts of the Connecticut Land Company for thirty cents an acre. The fact that when promoters surveyed the land they found it two hundred thousand acres short has a bit of poetic justice about it. This shortage brought the price of the land actually to forty cents an acre. The purchase price of all the Western Reserve was less than the cost of a single great hostelry and its loca- tion on Euclid Avenue today. The Connecticut Land Company determined, in accordance with its charter, to divide "the Promised Land" into small lots. In May, 1796, Moses Cleaveland, a Yale man, was selected as their agent and general field superintendent. And this appointment initiated a movement to the Western Reserve, which is of deep interest to us, intensified by the circumstance that it became in truth the ''land of our fathers." A score of years prior to the advent of Moses Cleaveland, one of those intrepid doers-of-good, a Moravian missionary, John Heckewelder, saw in the site of the city of Cleveland great com- mercial possibilities. Heckewelder, being a good geographer, based his conclusions on the happy meeting of river and lake. Cleveland's golden story Twenty years later, standing on the same brown earth, Moses Cleaveland visualized ex- actly what John Heckewelder had dreamed — that ships would point out of the Cuyahoga into Erie, as surely as the fish go up the stream in the glad springtime. Moses Cleaveland, soldier, scholar, surveyor and sage, left Connecticut with an entourage of fifty men. There were in the party civil engi- neers, an astronomer, a mathematician, a com- missary and helpers — lads with joy bubbling in their hearts and romance written on their bronzed faces. They were a land crew who believed in the ancient saying, "A passage peril- ous maketh a port pleasant." And they did have a perilous journey, reach- ing Buffalo in June, two months after Cleave- land's commission was given him. Here Red Jacket and Joseph Brant demanded that they halt and sit in council to consider Indian rights and wrongs — principally the latter. Moses Cleave- land satisfied the rights and mollified the wrongs with a gift of five hundred dollars, two beef cattle, and a copious supply of whiskey. Of the two principal parties to this transaction, one had a city named for him and the other a tavern — the Red Jacket Inn at Buffalo, long since demolished. The Indians agreed at the council never under any provocation to disturb the white settlers in the Western Reserve. The pipe-of-peace proved THE KINGDOM OF GOLD 5 mightier than the blunderbuss, for the agree- ment was never violated. The surveying expedition celebrated Inde- pendence Day, July 4, 1796, at Conneaut, Ohio. The future state of New Connecticut was toasted in oratory such as was heard under Chaldean skies. Moses Cleaveland was gratified at the soldierly discipline of his boys. He held council with Chief Cato of the Massasauga In- dians and presents were exchanged. Sailing westward from Conneaut, Cleaveland touched at the mouth of a minor stream. It goes on forever, reminding us of the surveyor's disappointment, as Chagrin River. Anxiously skirting the shore, fresh with sum- mer foliage, Cleaveland watched for the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The boat slipped into the river on the morning of July 22, 1796. A landing was made under the east bluff of the river — a short distance north of the present Superior viaduct. Cleaveland, worn by travel and wearied to de- pression, was not certain that this would be the future capital site. He returned to Conneaut to consult the men whom he had left behind. At Con- neaut he sat himself before a table with a quill, plenty of ink and blotting sand, and unburdened himself to the Connecticut Land Company. He proclaimed the land excellent, the water clear, the clay banks high, the top of the land level and 6 Cleveland's golden story covered with chestnut, oak, walnut, ash and sugar maple, and but few hemlocks. The shore west of the Cuyahoga, he reported to be a steep bank ten miles long. The master surveyor then expressed himself tersely regarding his woes. He wrote: "Those who are meanly envying the compensation and sitting at their ease, and see their prosperity increasing at the loss of health, ease and comfort of others, I wish might experience the hardships for one month; if not then satisfied, their grumb- ling would give me no pain. It is impossible to determine upon a place for the capital." He demanded more time for examination of the land and water-ways. He reported his men in good health and spirits though without "sauce or vegetables." Moses Cleaveland then went back to the mouth of the Cuyahoga and re-considered his judgment. He determined that, after all, he knew no better site for the capital of the new state. He made a town plan, a central square from which streets extended. He put his official O. K. on the map and the town was called Cleaveland. Years later, a news-writer left out the "a" and the revised spelling was accepted. Moses Cleaveland was just three months on the Western Reserve. He left under a fire of criticism for expending fourteen thousand dol- lars without completing the work. The THE KINGDOM OF GOLD 7 Company sent a preacher. Reverend Seth Hart, to finish the survey. It is said that the dominie buried a man and married a couple, but made no changes in the plans of the founder of the city of Cleveland. Moses Cleaveland did not re-visit the city of his founding. He made for it a very modest pre- diction when he said, "The child is now born that may live to see the place as large as Old Windham.'' Old Windham, Connecticut, now has a citizenry of fifteen thousand people. New England breezes blow about the granite monu- ment reverently erected over Cleaveland's grave in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1906, one hun- dred years after his death, by the people of Cleveland. Cleveland was deliberately planned and built. It was not the growth of a chance acorn — the miscellaneous collection of huts about a fort or trading post, where settlers tarried, lacking the courage to go on. No other city in the New World stands as laid out by its founder and bearing his name. From this point, Cleveland's golden story is a chronicle of hearts that hoped, minds that planned and hands that toiled to make the city of Moses Cleaveland's founding "great and glorious." CHAPTER 11 LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER II LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN HEY came years before Lincoln. Meas- ured in terms of turmoil and suffering, they preceded the Emancipator by ages. And yet they were the type of men and women of whom the minstrel of democracy, Vachel Lindsay, sings: "We must have many Lincoln-hearted men. A city is not built in a day. And they must do their work and come and go While countless generations pass away." Lorenzo Carter, James Kingsbury, Nathaniel Doan and Abram Hickox kept at bay the wilder- ness attempting to re-invade the city projected by Moses Cleaveland. In recording their coura- geous frontier struggles, let us not forget the women who contributed to "the winning of the West." A New England woman once wrote 12 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY in a letter to a friend, ''We speak of the hard- ships of the Puritan fathers. But, mark you, the Puritan mothers had to endure the Puritan fathers." Aside from such domestic problems, the women of the Western Reserve met genuine affliction with a smiling bravery. The good wife of Lorenzo Carter started west- ward with her stalwart husband from Vermont. Reaching Buffalo in the late fall, they decided to spend the winter months in a more advanced settlement on the Canadian side. But before they crossed the rushing Niagara, Mrs. Carter gave birth to a child. Her baby's attendant was Chloe Inches, a young Canadian girl. Here was this untaught maid in Kipling's lines: "Who stands beside the Gates of Birth, Herself a child — a child unborn." Whether it be her name or the circumstance, something makes Chloe a fascinating figure in this story. Her name signifies in the Greek, "verdant or blooming." Chloe, named for a heroine of Greek romance, a shepherdess in Sidney's "Arcadia/' the wife in a homely Ben Jonson comedy, the wanton shepherdess in Fletcher's allegory; this girl coming of parents who had a touch of Old World culture, witnessed IKc in one of its most uncompromising aspects, as did all of the frontier women. The Carters went on to Cleveland in the spring. A spot on West Second Street was the LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN I3 location of their first Cleveland home. There was no going to market for provisions in those days — not even a ''cash and carry" system obtained. Carter and his faithful dog made for the woods and returned with venison and other game. They came back with provender in plenty be- cause the mighty man had tiny and precious mouths to fill. The meats were roasted on a spit before an open fire. The way of living was ele- mental and Carter's children sorely missed the Uttle refinements of the home back east. Misfortunes visited the family often and severely. The children set fire to the new house. Carter stoically set out to hew logs for a new and larger one, which he made into a tavern to entertain infrequent strangers and to form a social centre for the village. Much to Mrs. Carter's dismay, the Indians would come into the tavern, group themselves about the fire and sleep through the day, indifferent to household routine. During all this period, Lorenzo Carter was growing in strength and wisdom. He became, by common consent, the administrator of the unwritten law of the new country. It is recorded that the first settlers of Cleveland were never seriously discommoded by the Indians. There were no massacres and no ambush warfare. The Indians fought among themselves and called in Lorenzo Carter as a mediator. 14 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY Carter learned the Indian dialects and the ways of the council-fire. In an historic personal battle, Big Sun and Menompsy, a medicine man, had carved each other with knives. Lorenzo Carter was able to avert war between the Chip- pewas and the Senecas over this incident. The medicine man had attended the wife of Big Sun. The claim was made that his medicine had killed her. Carter held that the medicine man acted in good faith and the Indians accepted his judgment. Carter knew little law but based his decisions on humanity and common sense. He realized the value of sociability as a community lubri- cant. He considered baked pork and beans, plum cake and doughnuts, as potent pacifiers and means of inducing fellowship. The banquet board then, no less than now, was the peace table. Oilman Bryant charmingly described a social affair at Carter's tavern. He tells of his own fastidious preparation for the event; how he dressed his hair with candle-grease and a coat of flour in lieu of an aristocratic wig. In addition to this, he employed a yard and a half of black ribbon to tie the queue. Attired in a gingham suit, a wool hat and heavy shoes, Bryant gal- lantly took to the ball Miss Nancy Doan, who lived four miles east of town. There was the lavender of romance about going to an old-time LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN I5 party, which eludes the more elaborate social functions of today. Oilman Bryant wrote: "I took' the old horse *Tib* for Miss Doan who mounted behind me from a stump in front of the Doan cabin. She spread her underpetticoat over the horse's back, and held up her calico dress to keep it clean. It was a long four-mile ride through the woods to the Carter tavern, but the thought of Major Jones fiddling *Hie Betty Martin' and the ^Sailor's Hornpipe' kept us in good spirits." This winsome girl will serve to introduce her illustrious father, Nathaniel Doan, the first blacksmith of the Western Reserve. The Con- necticut Land Company had decided that the settlers might do their settling without the services of a lawyer, be born and die without succor from a doctor and without consolation from a preacher, but a blacksmith was indis- pensable. So they sent Nathaniel Doan as the official smith, presenting him with a city lot. Doan had served with the surveying com- panies. His family joined him from Haddam, traveling almost entirely by water via the Con- necticut River, Long Island Sound, the Hudson, the Mohawk and its branches, completing the journey along the shores of the Lakes Ontario and Erie. Doan, too, became a tavern keeper, establish- ing a noted place, "Doan's Tavern on the Euclid 1 6 Cleveland's golden story Road/' Doan seems to have possessed much of the expansive commercial ability of the present- day packer. He operated a saleratus or baking soda factory to supply a substitute for the lye then used in cooking. He operated a shop, tavern, factory, a general store, and became a road builder, the postmaster, justice of the peace and religious mentor, conducting services in his own home. When Doan retired from blacksmithing, he was succeeded by Abram Hickox who arrived in 1808, walking all the way to Cleveland from Connecticut. His wife and five children rode in a wagon drawn by oxen. Father Abram keeping abreast the team. Hickox operated a shop near the present site of the Rockefeller building. He was a philosopher of the Eben Holden type, and there is recorded a gracious picture of the fine old "uncle to all the children" decorating the village schoolhouse with evergreens and candles in preparation of the Yuletide festivities. The fourth of the quartette of Lincoln-hearted men was James Kingsbury who founded New- burg. Kingsbury and his three children came from New Hampshire. Pathos played its fateful part in their lives. Mr. Kingsbury found it necessary to return to New Hampshire, leaving his family on the frontier. On reaching his old home in the east, he was taken ill. The family, then at Conneaut, was in peril. Their cabin was LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN I7 about buried beneath the snow and the wolf came sniffing at their door. The scant food supply was daily diminishing. Kindly Indians replenished the larder. But the storms became too severe for even the Redskins. The children cried from the cold. Another baby came. Kingsbury, with the aid of a faithful Indian guide, arrived home on Christmas day. The tiny life of the new baby hovered a day or so, as if awaiting the father, and was gone. Mrs. Kingsbury became distressingly ill. The family cow, which supplied the beneficent nourishment of the children, was poisoned by eating oak leaves and died. Finally Kingsbury was able to make a trip to Erie and to return with food. Sustenance gave a renewed bouyancy of spirits, and the Kingsburys were victors in the battle with the wilderness. These pioneer men and women did what they found necessary to do and without complaint. Lorenzo Carter, for instance, though sorely tried by the experience, conducted an execution with- out flinching from the ordeal. An Indian by the comic opera name of O'Mic was found guilty of murdering two trappers near Sandusky. The Indians assenting, he paid the penalty ac- cording to the law of the white man. A small group of men armed with flint-lock guns formed a guard about O'Mic. He was drawn to the place of execution seated on his 1 8 Cleveland's golden story coffin, in a wagon which had been freshly painted for the occasion. The gallows were erected on the Public Square. O'Mic approached the gal- lows with great anxiety, affirming that he would show white men how a brave Indian could die. When the party reached the gallows. Major Carter and the sheriff adjusted the rope about O'Mic's neck. A black cap was drawn over his head. The Indian lost his bravado and struggled to escape. The Indians, congregated, showed signs of emotion. Carter addressed O'Mic in the native tongue. He appealed to him to display his Indian courage. O'Mic agreed to die bravely if he were given a pint of whiskey. Major Carter con- sidered this fair and right and, in the name of the law, quickly procured a pint of the courage- inducing liquid. O'Mic was satisfied. The rope was again adjusted and the cap lowered. This time O'Mic was more terrified than be- fore and pleaded for more whiskey. After another parley in the dialect. Carter acquiesced. And while the Indian was consuming this second draft, the wagon was driven out from under him. And the law had followed its course. The attending Indians were well imbued with a deep respect for the white man's law. An eyewitness of this execution tells us that the flint-lock guns in the hands of the guards were so damp that the Indians might easily have res- cued O'Mic. LINCOLN-HEARTED MEN I9 Dr. Long, Cleveland's first physician, utilized the skeleton of O'Mic for clinical purposes. And gossip affirmed that Captain Sholes, a patient of Dr. Long's, became panic stricken at the sight of O'Mic's frame in the doctor's pioneer hospital. The fright of the captain was set down by a wit as the last public appearance of the terrible O'Mic. And the bizarre tale of O'Mic is here set forth not because of any distinction on his part but because he represented but one of the factors with which Lincoln-hearted men of the Western Reserve contended, without compromise or favor. CHAPTER III TAMING THE WILDERNESS CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER III TAMING THE WILDERNESS NE memorable evening before the close of the year 1813, the Paul Revere silver, the Sheffield plate and the Irish napery were brought out of the hampers and ^ linen chests and set glistening and white under the soft light of the candelabra. For the citizens of Cleveland were banqueting Commo- dore Oliver Hazard Perry and General William Henry Harrison. On September lo, 1813, Cleveland folk had heard the cannonading in the battle of Lake Erie. And soon after came Perry's report, the mere repetition of which thrills Americans to- day: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." The village of Cleveland was an active partici- pant in the War of 1812. The American forces were compelled to surrender to the British at 24 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY Detroit. Captain Stanton Sholes, who was sent to Cleveland, built of chestnut logs a star- shaped stockade with a capacity of two hundred armed men. This stockade, Fort Huntington, was Cleveland's sole defense against the enemy. Strategically located in a dense wood west of Third Street and north of Lakeside Avenue, on a bluff overlooking the lake, it was to be the refuge and possibly the last stand of the patriots of Cleveland, should the British make a formid- able attack. Its armament consisted of but one small cannon mounted on a pair of wagon wheels. Lorenzo Carter and James Kingsbury helped to erect this fort. The women and children of Cleveland tasted of terror when they were hastily removed to Doan's Corners one August day in 1812 because of the reported movement of the British and Indians near Lake Huron in preparation for an attack on Cleveland by boat. It was afterward discovered that the group observed by the scout was a company of sadly wounded American men paroled from Detroit. The commanders of the British fleet on Erie kept a wary eye on Cleveland, believing it to be a source of American suppHes. In June of 1B13, the British "fleet" — the good ship "Queen Char- lotte" — appeared before Cleveland. A sudden and terrific thunder-storm, coming as if directed by Providence to save the ill-protected village, drove the ship from the Cleveland shores. TAMING THE WILDERNESS 2^ The shipwrights of Cleveland had the honor of constructing two noble ships of Perry's fleet. The ''Porcupine" and the "Portage" were built on the Cuyahoga River and provisioned and equipped with sails at Cleveland. Before Perry advanced into Put-in-bay, his fleet presented a never-to-be-forgotten spectacle, for a few hours, off the Cuyahoga. Well might the villagers toast Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who gave American fight- ing men an immortal slogan — whose name is to the youth of America all that Nelson signifies to the boys of Britannia. The war over, the Cleveland citizens turned toward better organization. The Kelleys have always had a leaning toward the law and politi- cal leadership. And a lad by the name of Kelley was in the vanguard of the new movement. Alfred Kelley made the first census of Cleveland, counting one hundred and fifty-two heads. On a map of the town, he indicated the locations of all of the houses, numbering thirty-four. The town limits then embraced a square west of old Erie Street, now East Ninth Street, and north of Huron Road. Kelley wrested the village charter from the state legislature in December of 1814, just eleven years after Ohio was admitted to the Union. No election in Cleveland has ever been attended with less friction than the first, which 2$ Cleveland's golden story was held in June, 1815. Out of the twelve voters registering, nine were elected to office and of course Kelley became president. Lorenzo Carter was chosen treasurer. In order to maintain his position properly, Alfred Kelley brought a bride from New York to be first lady of the village. He also purchased a horse and carriage with which to convey his consort to Cleveland. But later the Kelley crest might have suffered humiliation when another citizen bought a Victoria and a span of fine mules to be driven by a colored man in livery. The first village council consisted of mer- chants, a tanner and a physician, who made regulations controlling the too promiscuous use of fire-arms, fast driving in the village, and the distribution of merchandise. An election was equivalent to a draft, for failure to hold office was punished by fine. The fact that two men with Cleveland as their destination passed through the town without recognizing it, may be charged to frequent stops at taverns along the lane, rather than to the lackof acity plan. Had the unobserving stran- gers journeyed hither in 1813, they surely would have been made aware of their arrival by the imposing courthouse, erected by Levi Johnson on the Public Square at the cost of J500. The first village postmaster was Elisha Norton, who received mail fortnightly from Warren. His TAMING THE WILDERNESS T] successor, John Walworth, held six offices. But this is not to be counted against him. One year, he received seventy-one cents and the privilege of mailing his letters free as compensation for three months' service as postmaster. Walworth carried the mail in his pocket and delivered it C. O. D. at his convenience. There was a mail route between Cleveland and Pitts- burgh, four days being required for the trip. The mail was so light that it could be buttoned under the carrier's waistcoat, and so saddle bags were not always needed. Letters were mailed and paid for on a mileage basis. A single sheet cost six and one-fourth cents for any distance under thirty miles. Maga- zines were mailable at one cent a page. It took several weeks to get news from New York to Cleveland. As an emergency measure, a fast post was established during the War of 1812 from Washington to Cleveland. Important dis- patches were carried in one week. In the conduct of educational affairs, the villagers exercised a rare wisdom. They believed in a scientific distribution of burdens. They compelled the unmarried men of the village to pay the tuition of the poor children. The first school was established in the front room of Major Carter's cabin. At a later time the post-rider, Ashael Adams, held school in a small cabin on St. Clair street. He received ten 28 Cleveland's golden story dollars a month in money and wheat. The first school of major importance in Ohio was estab- lished in an old academy by Harvey Rice in 1 822. This famous educator laid down principles which are today recognized as sound. Those who complain about the accommoda- tion trains for Painesville as being few, far between and sometimes late, should read the Painesville stage announcement which appeared in the "Cleveland Gazette" in 18 18. The stage left Painesville every Thursday at four o'clock in the afternoon and arrived in Cleveland at ten o'clock the next morning. Fare on some of the stage lines out of Cleve- land was collected according to the weight and size of the passenger, which, considering the size of the coaches and the condition of the roads, was an equitable system. Anyway, why should the slim debutante be compelled to pay as much fare as a man of Johnsonian proportions? Springs had not been invented. Leather straps supported the swaying body of the stage-coach. You trav- elled in rainy weather or sunny, according to your preference for dust or mud. The stages left daily in every direction from the old Franklin house, which was near the present Rockefeller building on West Superior. Spangler's Tavern, west of the Square, was the headquarters of the celebrated Conestoga freight wagons, which for decades were the only TAMING THE WILDERNESS 1g means of securing merchandise from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. These wagons deserve a chapter in the history of transportation. They were the forerunners of the modern motor trucks. They carried from five to eight tons of goods. The Conestoga freight wagons were drawn by six or eight draft horses, with bear-skin covered collars. The saddles were embellished with bells. The horses were guided by a single rein from the leader to the teamster, who was seated on the last wheel horse. The great wagons negotiated roads which today would be considered impass- able. When night found them out on the prairies, the freight drivers camped till sunrise. Produce dealers of the time opposed the building of canals, so efficient in their estimation was the freight wagon system. Let us not be too scornful of their judgment, for did not Horace Greeley, the famous editor of the New York Tribune, write a wrathy editorial opposing the use of illuminating gas on the theory that it would burn up New York? The early fathers of the industrial kingdom of northern Ohio were men of initiative and vision. Cleveland's Golden Story is a saga of the fruits of their labors. CHAPTER IV GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS %^m 1 ^^"^^V |:r(- ^^a^ : -&- ^H^^^H _:.>— ~ ^^HSK»»K.«^ ^nRfii\ mm "S^^Sil CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER IV GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS HE fathers of Cleveland's arts, crafts and trades, whether by design or chance, fol- lowed the philosophy of "Don Quixote" in establishing the city's industries. Cervantes wrote: "It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all his eggs in one basket." The early industries were as varied in char- acter as they were numerous. And this condition prevails today, to the marked benefit of Cleve- land. It will prove even more vital to the city's welfare in the future, as the rivalry for place and power between metropolitan centres be- comes more intense. Cleveland's eggs are decidedly not all in one basket. They were not laid that way in the beginning. One of the most interesting of the kinder- garten industries was that of the water carrier. 34 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY Benhu Johnson, an ex-soldier with a wooden leg, was town water purveyor. He pre-dated all other private and municipal water plants. Johnson sold water for laundry purposes ex- clusively — two barrels for twenty-five cents. To complement Johnson *s water wagon, the first in Cleveland, Jabez Kelley supplied soft soap at a shilling a gallon. The soap was a by- product of Kelley's candle factory at the end of Superior Lane. The first tanner in Cleveland, whose name, records reveal, was Williamson, did a thriving business for those days with the trappers. He cured the raw furs of foxes, wolves, bears and squirrels. He oak-tanned leather and dressed it for the local boot and shoe makers. Much of this leather was heavy, but many a Cleveland Cinderella^s boots were Williamson- tanned. The family home was east of the Square, which later became the site of the Williamson building. There were weeks on the Western Reserve when the residents went without bread for lack of flour due from the East. The Connecticut Land Company believed firmly in the truth of the saying of English Matthew Henry, "Here is bread which strengthens man's heart and is therefore the staff of life." Accordingly, in 1799, they equipped a mill at Newburg Falls, now Broadway and Warner GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS 35 Road, under the direction of Wheeler Williams, whom they endowed with one hundred acres of land. To the mill at Newburg Falls the settlers brought their grain for grinding and their cunning for dealing. There was in Cleveland, in the formative days, a hatter named Walworth, who made the broad pioneer hat, the predecessor of the world-famed Stetson. On occasion, Walworth indulged in fancy and made tall felt hats for aspiring states- men. Doubtless some of his creations renewed and gave pungency to Lewis Carroll's phrase, "As mad as a hatter." Among the ventures of 1801 was a still on the river's edge. The spring water which bubbled on the premises and the grain brought by the farmers were utilized to produce the insignifi- cant volume of two quarts of liquor a day. At this rate, we must give the settlers all advantage of doubt and say that the beverage was made for medicinal purposes. Along in 1829 came one of the most fantastic phases of American arts and crafts. The people of Cleveland developed a collective mania which expressed itself in a fad for the production of silk and silk products. The women of Cleveland exhibited at the County Fair, in old Glenville near 105th Street, articles in which they featured silk yarn made in the home and spun from silk cocoons grown in Cleveland and vicinity. ^6 Cleveland's golden story At this exhibit, James Houghton received special recognition for the most lucrative half- acre of mulberry trees. Mary Severance was rewarded with a premium for specimens of silk twist. Mrs. Brainard of Brooklyn deserved special recognition for exhibiting silk in eight tints, colored with domestic vegetable dye. There were doubtless enthusiasts who be- lieved that in the valley of the Cuyahoga, old China and its famed silk worms would find a serious rival. But Ohioans found that the silk worm is not industrious in so rigorous a clime. The deserv- edly famous Ohio honey-bee proved a lucrative successor to the silk worm. A more sensible development was the four woolen mills which employed eighteen men, and were exceedingly busy in the '40s. There was a Bohemian settlement on the West Side that formed the nucleus of an extensive blanket industry. It was in this period that the carding of wool, the weaving of cloth, and the making of gar- ments shifted from the back parlor of the home to the shop. The ancient relationship of women and textiles was changing. In 1845, Kaufman Koch started a Cleveland tailoring establishment which, by a long line of succession — three-quarters of a century later — became the great establishment for the \ GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS 37 making of men's clothing — known as The Joseph and Feiss Company. In 1854, David Black came to Cleveland. He had a farm at the corner of St. Clair and Perry- Street, now East 22nd Street. He left farming to establish a notion store and in 1876 founded the Black and Hoffman organization for the making of women's clothing. He was succeeded by Herman Black, who introduced the radical idea of producing garments before they were ordered, which had always seemed to the old tailors a daring gamble. The standardization of sizes on the basic theory that nature is a sculptor with but few models, molding just so many people according to each type and pattern, was the thought behind Mr. Black's plans. It had not occurred to the makers of homespuns that production in quantity was possible and that people could be made to favor a limited number of styles. Morris Black, one of Cleveland's leading citi- zens is now head of this organization, still known as the H. Black Company. The Printz-Biederman Company of Cleveland — makers of the "Printzess" garments for women — have done much to give ready-to-wear garments the status once held exclusively by the creations of the modiste. This house was founded in 1893 by Moritz Printz and Joseph Biederman. In 1903, this company was incorporated under its present name. Originally they made only 38 Cleveland's golden story coats and suits; in later years they produced garments for misses and children. The Printz- Biederman Company is widely known for its method of dealing with employees, now number- ing about 1300. The workers have a direct voting voice in all matters which affect their welfare. In the youth of the Republic, men and women were much more individual in dress than even today. Benjamin Franklin, all of his life, kept to one style of suit, which was made by his good wife. He was received at Versailles and at the Court of St. James in a suit tailored by the loving fingers of his spouse. Cleveland is the second city in volume of sales in the women's wear trade today. It is the capital of the fine ready-to-wear world. Cleve- land is a "selling market." It sends its salesmen into most every city and village for orders. New York is a ^'buying market" where merchants go to select goods. Much of the cloth to make this clothing is woven in the city. Cleveland, leader among cities for diversified industries, does not neglect the problem of related trades. The great worsted mills began operation in Cleveland in 1888. In 1920, three carloads of wool shearings are transformed daily into enough clothing to make ten thousand men's suits. The tracing wheel and scissors have been replaced by the electric knife which cuts two GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS 39 hundred garments in one swift operation. Sixty buttons are automatically attached in a minute. Ten thousand complete and modish garments are finished every day. Eight to ten carloads of women's coats and suits are daily expressed from Cleveland to a thousand points on the continent. More people are required to fashion clothing in Cleveland than are needed in any other industry except iron and steel. The census of 1 910 disclosed the fact that one girl in every five or six Cleveland lassies enters the sewing trades. The clothing industry, which gained its first vital momentum in the years beginning 1880, is here used to illustrate the magic swiftness of Cleveland's commercial expansion, because it is the one industry which grew out of the home. Perhaps with a sigh of relief from its mistress, it slipped through the fingers of the housewife. The other industries had their beginning in the blacksmith's forge, the lumber camp, the saw- mill and the open hearth. The most intensely domestic of manufacturing now stands among the most scientific. Even the feminine fervor for silk-growing and spinning has its present-day reminder in houses which create out of blocks of spruce, synthetic silk as lustrous and appealing as the silk in a mandarin's coat. But garment-making, being the mother in- dustry, the most feminine of all occupations, can 40 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY never entirely desert the fireside. Women are not content to fold their hands while they may exercise skill in fashioning clothes for wee ones. Cleveland's contributions to the sewing machine industry are of pertinent interest. In 187O5 Thomas White and his sons were experi- menting in a small machine shop on Canal Street. About this period, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton made a railroad journey through Ohio on their way to Illinois. There being no sleeping accommodations on their particular train, the two pioneer suffragists sat through the night gazing into the darkness. Mrs. Stanton had noted the number of homes in which lights were shining. "Can it be/* said she to Miss Anthony, "that there is sickness in all of those isolated homes?" Miss Anthony determined to know the reason for the burning of the midnight oil. The con- ductor on the train was well acquainted with the folk along the line of his route. He said, "It is the early fall and the women are preparing for winter. They have no leisure nor oppor- tunity to sew in the daytime. After the babies are tucked in bed, they start to work — patiently stitching every garment by hand." Miss Anthony resolved that information about sewing machines was just as valuable as suffragist propaganda, so she induced manu- GOLDEN EGGS IN MANY BASKETS 4I facturers to print hand-bills with suffrage pub- Hcity on one side and sewing machine advertise- ments on the other. With Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony induced the fathers of the Western Reserve to part with some of their cash to lessen woman's burden. Thomas White, of Cleveland, was one of the sewing machine makers who heartily approved of the missionary work of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton. The other sewing machine in- ventors and manufacturers were in the East. White perfected his machine and produced and sold it in the territory which needed it the most. Over eight million White sewing machines have helped to bring more leisure to women. And out of the sewing machine business came other industries. The Whites were so successful with the domestic machine that they began building bicycles. Bicycles were the forerunner of the automobile. The White Company evolved first the steam machine, then a gasoline car, and is now world- famed for motor trucks. So you see that the hearth-side crafts of the Western Reserve trace a continuous relationship to the refinements of today — from linsey wool- sey jackets to limousine motor coats. CHAPTER V MASTERY OF THE INLAND SEAS -^- ftM ^ ^^^^s CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER V MASTERY OF THE INLAND SEAS NDUSTRY without transportation is simply routine by which day-by-day needs are supplied. Then come a few decorative objects to satisfy the urge for self-expression in art, which is the soul of the people. The Navajo Indians made their blankets and pottery for their own pleasure rather than for trade. But white men have always been rovers. The early settlers of the Western Reserve had more than domestic ambitions. The inheritance of the English and French traditions of commercial adventure moved them to a conquest of the Great Lakes. The first sail-boat to part the waters of Lake Erie was the "Griffin," built near Buffalo by La Salle. The voyager of Rouen directed the practical construction of the "Griffin." Father Louis Hennepin kept alive the faith and enthu- 46 Cleveland's golden story siasm of their fellow explorers and the Indian helpers. The "Griffin" was launched in the Spring of 1679. ^^ was of forty-five ton bur- den and armed with five cannon. The "Griffin'* touched at Detroit, Mackinac and at Green Bay, and loaded with a rich cargo of furs, started on its return trip. La Salle and his leaders had left the boat, continuing their explorations. The famous "Griffin" and its rich cargo never reached its haven. For centuries, the Indians in their canoes had carried on primitive barter along the edges of the lakes. But no Indian had ever summoned courage to go straight across. To the awe of the Redskins, the white navigators in their sturdy French bateaux propelled by a crew of paddlers, went directly across the lakes. In 1808, Major Carter launched a schooner lightly dubbed the ''Zephyr," which she cer- tainly was not. The ''Zephyr" carried thirty tons and made regular trips with furs, grind- stones, salt, merchandise and iron between Buf- falo, Cleveland and Detroit — the present route of the floating hostelries of the Cleveland and Buffalo and the Detroit and Cleveland lines. i.evi Johnson, the Sir Christopher Wren of Ccveland's architects and builders, who con- structed the first courthouse, the first frame house in the city and many of the early office structures, built the "Pilot" in a yard at the MASTERY OF THE INLAND SEAS 47 site of the present Opera House. Johnson^s craft was hauled to the river with much urging and straining by twenty-eight oxen. In the libraries of men who have a passion for the sea and a fervent love for the shapely ships that won victories over great waters, there are models of the clippers developed after the War of 1 8 12. These three-masted boats were trim and speedy, with well-turned bows and broad sterns. Some of the most famous carried five masts and were of two thousand five hundred tons. These glorious swift sailers were of white oak, the deck-house and spars being of pine. Michigan's straightest timber went into their masts. And it is a token of the affection of their masters for these sailing boats that many of them were christened with feminine names. Thomas Quayle was the most eminent boat designer of the time. With the depletion of the forests and the introduction of steam, the romantic full-rigged craft were banished from our water-ways. They live in the memories of the old marine men and in the admiration of youthful readers of adven- ture tales. The first steam-boat to put in at the Cleveland harbor was the famous '* Walk-in- the- Water," named for a friendly Indian who was an adviser of the pioneers of Buffalo. On the first day of September, 1818, the people of Cleveland gathered on the bluff over- 48 CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY looking the lake to watch this curious craft approach the town. The "Walk-in-the-Water" made eight to ten miles an hour. Cord-wood, piled high on the deck, supplied its fuel. Inspired by this steam-propelled boat, Johnson con- structed the "Enterprise** in 1824. The "Enter- prise" was luxuriously fitted, so the Western Reservists thought, with cabins for passengers. By 1830 there were five passenger boats plying between Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit. Aside from the fact that the side-wheelers had a fire or an explosion occasionally, they were fairly safe and moderately comfortable. Some folk preferred to ride horse-back from Buffalo to Cleveland rather than risk the trip on this "deviUsh contraption." The fear was expressed that a side-wheeler might lose one of its wheels and the boat turn on its side. The first boat bearing the proud name "City of Cleveland" was built in 1837. The "City of Cleveland" had a steam whistle and was superior to the other craft on the lake in that she could vent her emotions. The lordly "Em- pire" was another side- wheeler of great fame. The cabins were furnished in the gaudy Ameri- can Empire style of decoration. The "Empire" advertised a cuisine under the direction of a chef, and also bands and entertainment. And we call the cabaret a novelty! The "Empire" destroys our illusions. MASTERY OF THE INLAND SEAS 49 We who live among the softer indulgences of life are stirred by tales of hardship and endur- ance. We are thrilled by the stories of the early side-wheelers whose decks and cabins were battered by the cord wood, which shifted in the relentless storms. The graceful side-wheels gave way to hidden propellers. Many of the old boats were newly equipped. Then railroads came, and the passenger traffic by boat lost favor. Iron, coal, copper and grain became the chief cargoes of the lake boats. From the '70s on, the commerce of the "land- locked seas" grew in volume, until it can now be said that Liverpool receives less tonnage in a year than Cleveland. The mighty achievement of the lake freighter can best be pictured in contrasts. The brig "Columbia" brought one hundred and thirty tons of ore from Marquette in 1855. Today "Le Land De Graff" brings fourteen thousand tons of ore and returns to Superior with two hundred cars of coal. This tremendous cargo is put aboard the freighter in less than two hours — in the time one spends at the matinee. The magic coal-loading machines were made and developed in Cleveland's shops. A freighter arrives in Cleveland from Duluth in five days — a distance of a thousand miles. Coal is ex- changed for iron ore or perhaps grain. Fourteen thousand tons of ore are dumped into the boat in 50 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY less than two hours or four hundred and twenty- two thousand bushels of wheat are loaded. In the infancy of Cleveland's shipping, it took four days to load three hundred tons. Stagings were then built inside the holds of the old freighters and ore shoveled by hand to the plat- form and then to the dock. A week was con- sumed in unloading three hundred tons. Now, the huge claws of the mammoth unload- ers of the lakes pile twelve thousand tons of ore on the docks in three hours. The ore unloaders, miracles of invention, were evolved by Hulett, Brown and McMyler, Cleveland men. These machines have made it possible for the Lake Erie ports to handle a tonnage exceeding that of all the ports of France. Four out of five of the steel lake freighters are Cleveland owned. The father of the iron carry- ing lines was the Cleveland Iron Company, organized in 1849 ^7 Samuel Mather, Senior, and his friends. In 1 870, the Great Lakes boasted three iron freighters. Today there is a fleet of more than six hundred steel ships carrying the world's largest cargo of iron and coal. Let us here pay tribute to Captain Henry Coffinberry and James Wallace who organized the Globe Shipbuilding Company. These men believed that a steel ship would float, contrary to the ideas of the old shipbuilders, who af- firmed that only timber would keep above MASTERY OF THE INLAND SEAS 5 1 water. Coffinberry and Wallace organized the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, acquiring dry- docks, ways and shops. The first steel freighter was the steamer ''Onoko." This boat earned enough silver to fill its hold before the prophecy of the old shipbuilders came to pass and the waters closed over its decks. Today the passenger ships have regained the popularity of yore. The "See-and-Bee" and its companions are floating town-houses with draw- ing rooms that rival the salons of Euclid Avenue. Going from Cleveland to Buffalo is like walking through the foyers and restaurants of a hotel or club. Little resemblance is there to the water- washed decks of the "Griffin." CHAPTER VI THE LINES ON OHIo's MAP liH^ X W AiPrStJI Jl^ j«=^JC== -tV..'^ ^^^^Mm^mfi ^^ -^ CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER VI THE LINES ON OHIo's MAP HE living are judged by their personali- ties — the dead by the record of their accompHshments. And many of the achievements of the settlers of Cleve- land entitle them to an illuminated page in American history. By 1834 they had cut a canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth. This canal is 309 miles long. One has but to compare it with the longest canals in the world to appreciate the labors of the Ohio canal builders. The Erie canal extends like a silver ribbon across the Empire State for ^^^ miles. The Ganges canal in India is a royal water-passage of 350 miles. The Grand canal in China, a thousand years in building, goes 800 miles through the Celestial Empire. Many famous canals are less than one-half the length of the Ohio canal. Alfred Kelley, first chief executive of Cleve- land, promoted its canals. He was appointed ^6 Cleveland's golden story state canal commissioner but provided with insufficient funds. No one had faith enough in the undertaking even to expect to see the system completed. The state gave Kelley permission to make the cut and the people extended their good wishes. Kelley became a martyr to the cause of canals. He divested himself of personal comfort. With his family, he occupied a hut along the line of the first canal to keep a determined eye on the construction. In 1820, Cleveland was a tiny lake port with less than two hundred inhabitants. Sandusky and Ashtabula were its serious rivals. Had des- tiny used Alfred Kelley, who lived, loved and labored for Cleveland, in some other vineyard, the city's present position might be less auspicious. Kelley was inspired by the successful com- pletion of the Erie canal under the direction of Governor De Witt Clinton of New York. He foresaw that a canal from the interior of the State to Cleveland would make this lake port the shipping market of the Ohio basin. On July 4, 1824, there was a celebration of the begin- ning of work on the Ohio canal. The Governor of New York, of the long line of great Clintons, broke the ground. In 1834, a water route from Cleveland to Portsmouth was realized and the trip was made in eighty hours. The passenger boats, known as "packets," were drawn by three horses, single file, with a THE LINES ON OHIO S MAP 57 boy driver mounted on the rear steed. The passengers dined, slept, conversed or wrote let- ters in a cabin-hall, each according to his incli- nation or power of concentration. Seymour Dunbar is authority for the state- ment that on one occasion one hundred men were crowded into a room designed for the accom- modation of forty-two. There was a separate compartment for women and children. The division was maintained even during the serving of meals. The maintenance of good nature in traveling on a canal packet was the test of one's spirit of democracy. A man who removed his shoes before retiring in the packet berth was con- sidered a "fop" and unnecessarily fastidious. The crew of a canal boat consisted of a com- manding captain, two hard-working steersmen, two juvenile drivers and the cook. While the other members of the crew had rest periods, it is said that the cook worked "all of the time." Canal boat traveling had much to commend it to those of a lackadaisical temperament. Canal passsage was safe. Dunbar poetizes this mode of travel : "No more delightful experience of travel could be experienced in all the country than that encountered by a canal boat passenger while moving through a region of wooded hills during the hours of a moonlit summer night. Ahead <;8 Cleveland's golden story he could see the plodding horses and their driver. The lights from the open windows gleamed on the towpath and the rugged hill- sides, and each new turn of the waterway brought into vision some new scene of shadowy loveliness." The popularity of canal traffic was attested by the fact that more than nineteen thousand passengers arrived in Cleveland by canal in 1843. ^^d so Alfred Kelley's vision was vindi- cated. Like Alfred of old, surnamed "the Great," he proved his case. "Going to Cleveland" was early made the vogue through the agency of the canal boat, despite considerable discomfort and low bridge hazards. Thus was Cleveland's shop- ping district given initial impetus. The canal boats brought wool, flour, wheat and coal to Cleveland. One barge brought a cargo of coal in 1828. There was a vain endeavor to market it about the town. Wood was plenti- ful. Why should one soil his jacket and soot the chimney of his house with this black stuff? At last Philo Scovill, mine host of the Franklin Tavern, was induced to burn it in his bar-room grate. Men and dogs soon gathered about to bask in the continuous and unvarying warmth. And thus Old King Coal persuaded the people to allow him to become the servant of all. Alfred Kelley was the James J. Hill of the first half-century of Cleveland's commercial develop- THE LINES ON OHIO S MAP 59 ment. Mr. Hill once said, "I have written my name in lines of steel across the face of the continent and no man can erase it." Alfred Kelley wrote his signature on the map of Ohio. After the completion of the Ohio canal he turned his intense energy to railroad building. Kelley was first, last and all of the time for Cleve- land. He knew that if the canals benefitted Cleveland, the railroads were certain to do a thousandfold more. The Ohio Railroad of 1836, not of Kelley's promotion, was built on piles driven into the ground — the ''railroad on stilts." But this enterprise proved a bubble and brought nothing to the investors. For many years a portion of the track stood on Lorain Avenue. Kelley organized the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad on an entirely different basis than that of the unstable Ohio Railroad. Kelley knew one lesson by heart. He knew that to build and operate a railroad, one must have ample capital. A meeting was held in the old Empire Hall. Kelley made a speech. The citi- zens saw the light, but lacked warmth over the enterprise. Then Kelley dramatically locked the doors and changed his appeal to a demand. The session lasted till the 'Veesma' hours" and the funds were raised in a generous amount. Construction had, some time before, been started on the Scranton flats of the Cuyahoga 6o Cleveland's golden story River. Kelley himself filled the first wheelbarrow with earth — every shovelful a symbol of prog- ress. Other men followed his example. After the Empire Hall subscription meeting, the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company built the first engine. It was a wood-burning iron horse which wheezed and coughed itself nearly to pieces. But it drew a string of flat cars on the construction work with speed and regularity. The newspapers of rival towns had directed shafts of satire at Cleveland's "wheelbarrow railroad." The "Cleveland Herald," however, on February 20, 1851, silenced them all with this barrage: "There is no use attempting an editorial today. The eloquent, sublime and fine all have vanished from our caput and their places are filled with one extremely large, splut- tering, whizzing locomotive." An advertisement in the Cleveland papers announced, "The regular through trains of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad will commence running on Tuesday next." A minister of the time used as his text, "The chariots rage in the street, they jostle one an- other in the broadways; the appearance of them is like torches, they run like lightning." Rails for Cleveland's first steam road were brought from abroad. Today Cleveland is send- ing steel railway supplies to the Old World. Railroad regulation is one of the leading topics before the Nation for 1920. THE LINES ON OHIo's MAP 6l Cleveland's first going railroad was regulated with a drastic indifference to the company's plans. The Council passed an ordinance which limited the speed of trains in the city limits to five miles an hour. Trains were not permitted to run at night. Trains were stopped to collect fares. Those who unofficially objected to the railroads placed obstructions on the tracks. The first railroad eastward from Cleveland was the Cleveland-Painesville-Ashtabula, which started operation in November, 1851. This road was financed with difficulty. Investors believed that it could not compete successfully with the lake steamers. Provision was made for a double- trackway and a good road-bed. Today this bit of railroad is a most important fraction of one of America's greatest railway systems. The journey to Buffalo from Cleveland was interrupted by a change at Erie to another short line. The various short lines were of different gauge, and through transportation was impos- sible. Cleveland men planned a consolidation of the many small lines, which resulted in the Lake Shore Railroad. Eventually the Lake Shore became a through line from Chicago to Buffalo. One trunk line after another made Cleveland a central point. Alfred Kelley, crowned by his associates as *'the railroad king," was one of the Empire builders to whose memory time has been unkind. 62 Cleveland's golden story Nor was he an idol of his own day generation. He was of the Cromwellian type. He did his work and made no bid for applause. But to him belongs the credit for the canal and railroad development of Ohio. Cleveland became a bridge builder to avoid being '*a house divided against itself." The narrow valley of the Cuyahoga is a deep slash made by nature, which runs through the heart of the city. And were it not for the twenty-one bridges to "make us one" there would be twin cities watching each other across the divide. Moses Cleaveland located his dream city on the eastern bank of the Cuyahoga. Later the settlement on the west side became known as *'Ohio City." Lorenzo Carter estabhshed a ferry for travelers who crossed the river near his tavern. A neighbor, Elijah Gunn, operated a ferry at the foot of Superior Street. No bridge was possible at this point but near the present Central viaduct a bridge of logs, bound together by chains, was floated. This portable bridge had to be drawn aside to accom- modate passing sail-boats. In 1821, a public meeting was held to raise money by subscription to build a substantial bridge. Thirteen persons agreed to pay in work and money the cost of this pubHc utility. The first wooden bridge across the Cuyahoga, with a draw of forty-nine feet as a passage THE LINES ON OHIo's MAP 6^ way- for vessels, caused a miniature war — "the battle of the bridge." The Ohio City merchants objected to their trade going to Cleveland. Its city council declared the bridge "a public nuisance." An official organized a raid and blasted one abutment of the bridge. William Case of Cleveland, backed by a com- pany of miHtia armed with muskets and an ancient cannon, waited on the bridge to meet the attacking party. The Ohio City stalwarts advancing with axes and crowbars, ripped up the floor of the bridge and Case was driven back with clubs and stones. A number were injured before the sheriff of the county exercised his authority. But the bridge spanning the Cuyahoga cre- ated mutual interests. And many wooden bridges were erected. In 1857, a wooden bridge at West Third Street collapsed under the weight of a drove of cattle. Zenas King, a youthful farmer and bridge builder, recognized the weakness of the wooden bridges. King built a number of bridges of iron girders. He was the inventor of the iron bridge adopted in railroad construction. King had the co-operation of Amasa Stone, railroad engineer and contractor. Bridges made on the King plan have been shipped and re-assembled in every part of the world. To demonstrate its supremacy as a bridge builder, Cleveland has erected one of the largest 64 Cleveland's golden story concrete spans in the world. The high level bridge is five hundred and forty feet long. It is the mas- terpiece of the King Bridge Company. Four million dollars were here expended on the high level structure to save the laborious and un- necessary travel down to the flats and across the small bridges over the river and up the hills. As graceful as the arch of a rainbow, it typifies for all time the unity, co-operation and strength of Cleveland and of the old community of the Western Reserve. CHAPTER VII CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION ^i 1 ^ g-. pr ^ § ^^^Bj^ :_- CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER VII CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION T is a world-old belief that artists are not practical. But when the aesthetic mind is wedded to the scientific, it ac- complishes great things. Leonardo Da Vinci could do more things well than any other man of the Renaissance. F. Hop- kinson Smith of our own age was a water-color- ist, novelist and lighthouse builder. The destinies of Cleveland were influenced by a man of the Da Vinci type. Jeptha H. Wade was a successful portrait painter who lived in Adrian, Michigan. His scientific bent led him to experiment with the camera. He made the first daguerreotype taken in the Middle West. On a chance visit to Baltimore, Wade wit- nessed Samuel F.B. Morse send amessage over the first telegraph line. This proved the turning point of his life. He said farewell to the brush and pal- 68 Cleveland's golden story ette. The insulator of the Morse instrument was imperfect. The young artist invented the Wade insulator, adding to the facility with which messages could be sent and received. In 1847, Wade studied the construction and equipment of telegraph lines in the field. He strung the first line between Detroit and Jack- son. He then ran lines from Detroit to Cleve- land and Buffalo. The Wade line from Cleveland to St. Louis was completed in 1849. A telegraph office had been opened in the old Weddell House on West Sixth Street. As the eager citizens gathered around the instrument installed on September 15, 1847, they were startled when it began to act apparently of its own accord. A witness wrote: ''The machine all at once began to rattle like the bones of a skele- ton under a galvanic battery and the line was reported in order." Mr. Wade consolidated the existing inde- pendent lines running out of Cleveland. This consolidation formed the kernel of the Western Union Telegraph Company. With the imagi- nation of the artist, Wade proposed in 1861 a transcontinental telegraph line. His plans were considered nebular, altogether visionary and full of folly. Wade, undaunted, personally super- vised the construction of a Hne to the Pacific. In August, 1 861, he sent a jubilant message over the newly constructed line to San Fran- CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION 69 CISCO. The route of the first transcontinental railroad followed the Wade wires. The Pacific Telegraph Company was consolidated with the Western Union under Mr. Wade's directorship. Mr. Wade, who made New York's news San Francisco's breakfast topic, was rewarded with great wealth. He enriched Cleveland with many generous gifts — Wade Park being his most notable memorial. The motto of Victor Hugo was "More Light." Charles Brush accepted this motto as his very own. Brush, a sturdy lad, was living on a farm at Euchd, east of Cleveland, in i860. He at- tended school in Cleveland studying chemistry, physics and mathematics at the old Central High. He made curious experiments, to the amazement of his instructors. At thirteen, he had discovered the relation- ships between magnets, and constructed a tel- escope, grinding the lenses and fitting them into the instrument. In 1867, Charles Brush dis- played an intense interest in the discussions of an electric light which had been created in Paris, by current from a battery. The young man went to the University of Michigan. He applied himself to two problems: first, how to construct a dynamo to give the amount and kind of current to operate the lamps in a circuit; second, to find how to work a lamp without its flickering. 70 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY In 1876, he gave the world the Brush dynamo, a horse tread-mill on a farm east of Cleveland supplying the power. His first arc lamps con- sisted of two carbon lamps slightly separated. The current jumped from carbon to carbon, giving off "a dazzling white light." Twelve arc lamps were installed in Monumental Park, now the Public Square. On the evening of April 29, 1879, ^^^ ^^^^ lights sent rays over the assembled citizens. Many of them looked at the lights through smoked glasses to protect their eyes. The most emphatic protest against the arc lamp was voiced by women who affirmed that it lighted their complexions to disadvantage. David Be- lasco now lights his stages to complement the types of coloring of his women stars. The Brush arc lamp has given a sense of security to the people of nearly every city in the world. It has lighted the dark corners from which crept the menace of crime and vice. The Brush dynamo is the grandparent of the tre- mendous modern generators, the lesser suns of the world, furnishing light, heat and power. The Brush Company has for many years supplied the world with the materials for this method of lighting. Eventually Brush, Thomp- son and Edison merged the production of their inventions to form the General Electric Com- pany. CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION 7 1 Cleveland manufactures three-fourths of the carbon materials used in the United States. At Nela Park is the first establishment for the exclusive study of the distribution of light. Equipped like a great educational institution, the Nela Park laboratory has achieved many wonderful decorative and practical effects with illumination. Dayhght is re-created at night through Nela inventive genius. Charles Caleb Col ton said: "There are two metals, one of which is omnipotent in the cabi- net, and the other in the camp — gold and iron. He that knows how to apply them both may indeed attain the highest station." Cleveland men have applied their knowledge of iron with intelligence and colossal energy. The city's mammoth iron and steel industries began in Nathaniel Doan's blacksmith shop in 1798. A small foundry was opened in 1828 by John Ballard and Company. In 1834 the iron interests became ''big business" and the Cuya- hoga Steam Furnace Company was incorpo- rated. A blast furnace was erected that was ''blown" by steam instead of horse-power. The canal built by Alfred Kelley was utilized in bringing iron ore from central Ohio. The first locomotive that pulled a train in the Middle West was constructed by the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company and shipped to Michigan. In 1 841, this company molded the first cannon 72 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY made in Cleveland. The great swamps which furnished bog iron ore in those years are now devoted to the cultivation of onions. But it was not local ore that made Cleveland powerful. The discovery of iron ore in the Lake Superior region inaugurated Cleveland's romantic rise in the world of metals. Dr.J.L. Cassells^a Cleveland chemist, made a journey in 1846 to the Lake Superior region. He went to seek silver but found iron ore deposits vast enough to enrich the nation. Iron ore was shipped from Lake Superior to Cleveland in 1852. The first cargo consisted of six barrels — not considered worth the freight. One of Cleveland's iron masters in the '60s was Henry Chisholm. Iron became gold at his touch. Mr. Chisholm's first activities in Cleve- land were in the building of docks and piers. He then turned to iron making, concentrating on nails, bolts, screws, spikes and tools. In 1857, Mr. Chisholm established a rolling mill and blast furnace in Newburg. He did not fear innovations, and used the Bessemer con- verter, which was then considered an experi- ment. The early railroads took all of the rails that could be turned out. Mr. Chisholm died in 1880, leaving behind him an industry whose employees constituted a city of themselves. There are more than two hundred foundries and about two hundred machine shops and CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION 73 metal mills in Cleveland. The city has earned the title of 'The Sheffield of America." The flesh of the motor car is steel. Gasoline is its food. So it is natural that Cleveland should send over the highways of the world thousands of motor cars of its own make, and into the air, motor-driven planes. The Columbus of the automobile industry in Cleveland was Alexander Winton, another man from the heather-flecked land. At nineteen, this Scotch lad came to New York with his mother's blessing and a love of work. He followed the family's historic occupation of marine engineer and sailed for two years. In 1884, Alexander Win ton was employed in a Cleveland machine shop. He was interested in the improvement of the bicycle. And in the bicycle shop Mr. Winton, then a member of the company, began motor car experiments. His first trial machine stalled in front of the Brush home on Euclid Avenue. And there is an amusing story of Mr. Brush's arriving on the scene to assist and asking Mr. Winton, "Alex, can't you make it go?" The automobile wizard called from under the machine, * 'Would I be here if I could?" It was in 1896 that Mr. Winton completed his first car — a car built in his backyard. He worked on this car mostly at night and on holi- days. The neighbors reckoned the period of his 74 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY labors by sleepless nights. And when the machine finally snorted its way out of the yard into Bolton Place, the folk next door were as grateful and happy as the inventor — but for an entirely different reason. The uncalculating Tom Sawyers solicited a ride, but older people who prized life and limb declined Mr. Winton's invitation. And in 1898, the car was put on the market — the first automobile sold in America. This machine, a phaeton, was sold to a mechanical engineer, Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pa. The price was ?i,ooo. It had one cyhnder, car- ried two passengers and made a speed of ten miles an hour. The engine was cooled with ice, and infinite patience was required to start it. The erratic motion of one cylinder was un- musical to the ears of its builder, who gradually increased the number of cylinders to six. The Winton Company stands in a proud relationship to the city of its nativity. It is manufacturing the same car, in the same city, under the same name, and by the same owners as in its beginning. Cleveland's annual production of automobiles is now placed at eighty-five thousand cars. The industry is shared by ten active companies with a capital of over fifty million dollars. The annual output is valued at forty million dol- lars, double the value of all the goods manufac- tured here in 1870. CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION 75 Forty years ago, Worcester R. Warner and Ambrose Swasey began producing machine tools. Since they joined their forces, these two honored Cleveland citizens have made the name of Warner and Swasey the symbol of highest achievement in the making of scientific equip- ment and instruments. As early as 1 886 they set a world's record in the building of the thirty-six-inch refractor of Lick Observatory. Three of the most famous astronomical instru- ments in the world have been since erected by Warner and Swasey. The universe is viewed through Cleveland lenses at the Yerkes Observa- tory, the Naval Observatory in Washington, the National Observatory at Argentina, and the Canadian Government Observatory at Victoria. No great material reward has come to them through the making of scientific instruments. Mammoth machines and tools bring profits with which Warner and Swasey make their contributions to science. ''From telescopes to turret lathes" suggests the range of Warner and Swasey achievement. Oil has the habit of making men rich. It lavishly rewards its diggers and refiners. The plain native name of petroleum is given in text- books as "rock oil." John D. Rockefeller beyond all other men has guided and influenced the pro- duction of "rock oil." 76 Cleveland's golden story Mr. Rockefeller left high school at fourteen to work in a Cleveland commission house. A commentor says: "He went in as an errand boy and clerk. He became a partner and manager." In 1862, when he was twenty-three years of age, Mr. Rockefeller went to work for Samuel Andrews, a chemist and refiner of crude oil. From that time onward, he progressed with a consistency that made him the marvel of the commercial world. In this period the organization of the oil in- dustry commenced. The oil company with which Mr. Rockefeller was connected shared part of the second story of the Gushing block. Public Square and Euclid Avenue. The ground-floor was occupied by the dry-goods store of what is now the William Taylor Son and Company. Mr. Rockefeller, with his genius for leader- ship, attracted men of might. Harkness, Flag- ler, Andrews, and Huntington came to him. These men solved the difficult problems of the refining and distribution of oil. They eliminated chance to a large degree. They stimulated regularity in production and reduced waste. They utilized the by-products, and like conjurers created absolutely new lubri- cants and chemicals. Eight thousand miles of tank cars, two hundred and fifty oil steamships and more than fifteen thousand tank stations in America and Europe were established by the Rockefeller interests. CLEVELAND THE CRADLE OF INVENTION 77 King Kerosene, Cleveland's gift to the world, has largely abdicated his throne in favor of Prince Gasoline. Today there is an annual pro- duction of a billion gallons. The automobile, motor boat, aeroplane and other vehicles of swift movement demand gasoline in ever- in- creasing quantities. And the industry which had its inception in Cleveland seems equal to the call. Cleveland, being a lake port, has long been a well-painted town. Sailors have ever been known as active painters. A well-painted ship is their pride and when on land, sailors paint from force of habit. You have but to go to Salem and other old sailing towns to see the almost overly painted houses gleaming white in the sunlight. Of course in the forefather days of the Western Reserve there were many shabby, weather-worn buildings. Lorenzo Carter, however, painted his tavern red, the color being produced by mixing red clay and oil. In the early '60s, an enterprising clerk in a dry-goods store became mentally saturated with paints and oils. Henry Sherwin opened a shop and experimented with paint grinding. He formed a partnership with E. P. Williams in 1870. The company had the munificent capital of two thousand dollars. From the first mixings of colors on a stone slab, came the paint grinding mill, resembling the old-fashioned flour mill. 78 Cleveland's golden story Soon grinders were perfected. The quality- improved and the quantity increased through the years. The slogan of Sherwin-Williams paint expresses the magnitude of the business — "It covers the earth." Today there are thirty-three paint plants in Cleveland, getting their supplies from India, Argentina and China. Many porcelain -like enamels and varnishes have been originated in Cleveland, the cradle of invention. CHAPTER VIII Cleveland's golden facade CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER VIII C CLEVELAND S GOLDEN FACADE UCLID Avenue is Cleveland's golden facade. It is one of a trio of notable retail promenades — Fifth Avenue, State Street and Euclid Avenue. This proud thor- oughfare was once a long Indian trail. Moccasined feet trod the narrow path, now widened to the motor-way, where passes the flower of civilization. The old trails followed west to east on the crest of the ancient beach lines. Sandy and well-drained, they formed comfortable highways for the Redskin. The original plan of the city did not provide for Euclid Avenue. The village added the road as a convenient way to the east, surveying it in 1816. Its scholastic name was derived from Euclid township, through which it passed. The township was named by its founder, a surveyor, after Euclid, the nestor of mathematicians. 82 Cleveland's golden story The first broad way provided for the Western Reserve by the Connecticut Land Company was based on the Indian trail which became Euclid. It was the route of stage coaches and freight wagons for Buffalo and therefore often called the "Buffalo Road." A man destined to become Governor of Ohio, Samuel Huntington, in 1802, had an encounter with wolves on the Euclid road at what is now East 55th Street. Mounted on his horse, he battled the pack with an um- brella — his only armament. They followed him to the edge of the little settlement west of the Public Square. A panther known and feared was killed on EucHd in 18 10. Thus ended the destructive beast who dared to make war on man. Oxen drew stone- boats through the mud, taking children to school and families to the Meeting House on Sunday. In 1840, Euclid was planked and the destiny of the street determined. The acre of land on which the William Taylor Son and Company's store now stands was pur- chased by the Connecticut Land Company for forty cents. The next sale recorded of this land was at seven thousand dollars. The estimated value placed on it now is two million dollars. Euclid was graded and trees were planted in i860. Euclid Avenue then came into a distinc- tion accorded to but few streets in the world. To give Euclid as one's address was a credential Cleveland's golden facade 83 recognized in every centre of culture in the world. Brush, Chisholm, Wade, Rockefeller, King, Wellman, Johnson, Pack, Brown and Mather were some of the men whose residences made Euchd a hall of fame. Commerce slowly, but like an irresistible tide, invaded the street. The street railroad came in i860. The street became an avenue in 1870. Once the street was a haven of quiet and repose. More people pass East Ninth Street and Euclid in a quarter of an hour today than hved in the city in 1835. The decline of Euclid as a residence street and its dedication to business has its compensations. The city is doing something unique for its new beautification. Had Euchd retained its old status, the business district would have shifted to a less formal lay-out. The municipal group plan, which contemplates the transformation of that part of the city which forms its foyer, will, as Julian Street says, "Give Cleveland a certain right to call herself, first city." On Euclid Avenue there are many estab- lishments which historically, artistically and commercially rank with the noblest institu- tions of their kind in the world. Many of these houses trace a direct ancestry to Cleveland's oldest stores. Cleveland's first merchant was Nathan Perry, who sold drygoods in 1809. From Perry's 84 Cleveland's golden story Corners, now West Ninth Street, a trade district extended eastward along Superior Street to the Square. In Nathan Perry's day, competition was exceedingly keen and frank. One merchant would call attention to another's deficiencies. Nathan Perry published an advertisement in which he affirmed that though his list of goods was not as long as some of his neighbors' on paper, they were to be found on his shelves! He directly stated that the small White Store, a later competitor of his, made pretensions which were largely puffs for cheap merchandise. But Sir Advertisement has become a gentleman since Perry's day. George Worthington, the adventurous son of a hatter, came to Cleveland in 1829. He readily saw a chance of supplying canal diggers with good tools. He doubled his money in his trans- actions and invested it in a stock of hardware. The hatter's son founded the present George Worthington Company, Cleveland's oldest busi- ness house. The early '30s were natal years for Cleveland's stores. John Vincent opened a cabinet shop in a cooperage on Mandrake Lane near the present high level bridge. The boom of 1836 brought many people from the east. Travel was so beset with difficulties that furniture could not be transported. Accordingly, the Vincent store prospered. The Vincent - Barstow Store on Cleveland's golden facade 85 Euclid traces to the Vincent shop of ninety years ago. In 18605 Cleveland's retail centre was west of the Square near West Sixth Street. It took some courage on the part of Hower and Higbee to open their store one door east of what was then Seneca Street — now West Third Street. But they prospered. The Higbee Company with its establishment on Euclid is the result. In 1845, ^' ^- Beckwith opened a store in Cleveland for the sale of floor coverings. There were no rugs in those days, nothing but carpets in lengths. In 1849, Frederick A. Sterling be- came a factor in the Beckwith business. In 1886, George P. Welch entered the firm known today as the Sterling and Welch Company. In 1873, Cleveland's first carpet and interior decoration house, under the direction of Mr. Sterling, moved into a famous skating-rink be- tween the residence of Dr. Cushing and Taylor Store. One afternoon in 1 877, the carpets were packed under the galleries and the store decorated for the Charity Ball to be held in the evening. When dressed for such an event, the only re- minder of the fact that the ball was held in a store was the fact that the musician's platform was composed of a huge pile of carpets. The Sterling and Welch Company was among the first houses to venture on upper 86 Cleveland's golden story Euclid. Its present building constitutes one of the three greatest commercial galleries of dec- orative art in America today. A talented young man named Webb C. Ball came along and opened a shop at the corner of Superior Street and West Third Street to make and repair watches. His inventions attracted notice. He standardized the railroad time out of Cleveland which is known today as Ball's time. The store of Webb C. Ball on Euclid is part of the great Ball time organization. The first department store in Cleveland was McGiUin's on Superior Street opposite Ball's. McGillin's neighbor was Paddock and Son, furriers and hatters. Halle Brothers in 1891 succeeded the Paddock Store, and the business, as the Halle Brothers Company, was moved to upper Euclid. In April of 1870, William Taylor with Thomas Kilpatrick as junior partner, founded the firm of Taylor, Kilpatrick and Company, to do a general dry-goods business in the Cushing block at the south-east corner of the Public Square. The site was formerly the home of Dr. Erastus Cushing whose name and fame live in the pro- fessional and commercial annals of Cleveland Both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Kilpatrick had long been "in dry-goods," as they say in Scotland. They came from Hogg, Brown and Taylor's store in Boston, then the largest dry-goods house Cleveland's golden facade 87 in America, of which Mr. Taylor's elder brother was a managing partner. The high-class retail section of Cleveland was, prior to 1870, confined to Superior Street. Dr. Erastus Gushing, by means of much persuasion, induced the proprietors of the projected Taylor- Kilpatrick store to locate on Euclid and the Public Square in opposition to the advice of local commercial prophets. The Taylor-Kilpat- rick store pioneered the commercial conquest of Euclid Avenue. The inaugural announcement of the Taylor- Kilpatrick store in the ''Cleveland Herald" is worthy of reproduction for its statement of principles, its graceful literary quality and its prophetic setting-forth of principles now ac- cepted as the ethics of merchandising: "We will open on Thursday, April 21st, with an entirely new stock of dry-goods, suitable for the season and complete in every department. Our goods are bought in the present low market and will be sold exclusively at the one-price system at popular prices. 'The store is large, convenient and well lighted and we think the locality will commend it to public favor. We will adopt the one-price system without variation, and will therefore mark the article at the lowest living profit, 'Tlease, therefore, give us a trial and judge for yourselves. You will find a new store, new 88 Cleveland's golden story goods, popular prices, one price for all, good light, fair dealing, and we trust prompt attention. "Taylor, Kilpatrick & Co." There were thirty-six salesmen in the new store. On certain evenings of the week one could shop until ten o'clock. The goods were displayed under the light of "ten large chande- liers." The motto of the British merchant. Sir Thomas Gresham, engraved on his portrait made in 1 544 and which now hangs in Mercer's Hall, London, is "Love, Serve and Obey." The motto of William Taylor and his partner was, "Honesty in word and ware," — a phrase used in one of their early announcements. William Taylor fathered in the Middle West a revolutionary principle in retailing. This prin- ciple is today followed by the leading merchants as a moral principle, deviation from which is considered no less than commercial crime. Mr. Taylor insisted upon the observance of the one-price system in his store without vari- ation. This meant the same price on a given piece of goods to every customer. Prior to this period, a great deal depended upon the persistence of the customer or the mood of the merchant as to the final price of an article. The more subtle manner of selling was to offer an item marked fifty dollars at, say, forty "as a special favor to you." 1 Cleveland's golden facade 89 The Taylor business creed as first voiced by its founders is observed to the final letter today. The original standards of the founders of the business are observed. They are the unseen mentors of the store policy. The first change in the personnel of the firm came in 1 885 when Mr. John Livingstone Taylor, the only son of the senior partner^ at the age of twenty-four years, was admitted to part- nership. Mr. Kilpatrick withdrew from the firm in 1886, removing to Chicago. The firm then assumed the name of William Taylor Son and Company. The passing of Mr. William Taylor occurred in 1887. Mr. John Livingstone Taylor died in 1892. At the demise of her husband, John Livingstone Taylor, Sophia Strong Taylor succeeded to the business and is now president of the company and controlling owner. The business established by the senior Taylor and so ably developed by his son is sincerely carried on in accordance with the principles and policies outlined by them. The Taylor Store is in spirit exactly the same institution that, with high hopes and unusual ideals, made its first bid for public approval in 1 870. The Taylor Store then occupied the first floor of the Cushing block. Their up-stairs neighbors were the Standard Oil Company and the Water Works Department of the city. Almost every year has witnessed an enlargement of the 90 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY floor space. In 1890, the entire Gushing block was occupied by the Taylor Store. In 1907, the present five-story building was erected at 630 Euclid Avenue. In 1913, four skyward stories were added. Since then the Clarence Building, adjoining Taylor Store on the west, has been acquired. The Clarence Building will be torn down and on its site an addition built in the same architectural style as the present building. With all its rapid progress the house never compromised with its convictions. The founder was a Presbyterian of the school that put duty before gain. He insisted upon a strict observance of the Sabbath. The store has never issued Sunday advertising. The curtains of the show- windows are drawn and all work is absolutely suspended on Sunday. William Taylor Son and Company celebrates the Golden Jubilee of the house with the proud knowledge that it has kept faith with its friends, the public. As one passes by the store with its windows in the noble style of the Renaissance, he contemplates the steady growth of this insti- tution from the little dry-goods house on the Public Square — whose greatest asset was the sturdy honesty of its founders. Many institutions become mammoth by a single financial stroke on the part of a genius of organization. Taylor Store has grown with the CLEVELAND S GOLDEN FACADE 9I sureness of a great tree. Year after year by the natural process the tree casts its shade and gives of its fruit. In turn it is supplied with nourishment as a reward for its faithfulness. So this house, which has sought to benefit the pub- lic, has been sustained. It can be said with truth that never an hour of the working day passes but craftsmen and merchandisers in Orient and Occident are re- minded of Euclid Avenue. The buyers and rep- resentatives of its stores are searching the world for desirable merchandise. However, emphasis is put on American goods. Euclid Avenue in three wars — the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and the great World War — became a street of banners in which the Stars and Stripes eloquently proclaimed the American spirit of Moses Cleaveland's city. Going through the pages of your favorite newspaper is like a passage through Euclid Avenue. The advertisements of the Euclid Avenue merchants are their show-windows on paper. The first newspaper in Cleveland was edited, printed and published by Andrew Logan, who was of Indian descent. He brought his press and type from Beaver, Pa., to issue a four-page sheet. Editions were often delayed for want of paper. The editor would make trips to the east and return with several months' supply. 92 Cleveland's golden story Logan's paper was "The Cleaveland Gazette and Commercial Register." It made its initial bow on July 31, 18 18. And there has never been a time since, in the intervening century, that Cleveland has been without a current record of its happenings. Though Logan suspended publication in March, 1820, the "Cleveland Herald" had made its advent in 18 19 with three hundred subscribers. For sixty-six years the "Cleveland Herald" helped to make public opinion. In 1885 its assets were divided between the two most power- ful rivals, "The Cleveland Plain Dealer" and "The Cleveland Leader." The "Cleveland Plain Dealer" first appeared in January, 1842, and was all that its name implies. It was the descendant of the "Cleve- land Advertiser," established in 1831. For seventy-eight years the "Plain Dealer" has put in type the doings of Cleveland and its relation to the world. The first edition of the "Plain Dealer" con- sisted of two pages. The present "Plain Dealer" utilizes one hundred and forty-five tons of paper in one day, and has a daily circulation of over one hundred and seventy-five thousand copies. The "Cleveland Leader" appeared as the "Ohio American" of Ohio City in 1844. Edwin Cowles, a boy of eighteen, was its publisher in 1845. Re-named "The Leader" in 1854, it be- Cleveland's golden facade 93 came an anti-slavery paper and was issued at sunrise instead of sundown. Edwin Cowles was of the Dana and Greeley type — an editor of personality and power. The daily and "Sunday Leader" were bought by Dan R. Hanna, son of the late Mark Hanna. The daily "Leader'* was sold to the "Plain Dealer" in the Fall of 1917, while the "Sunday Leader" was still printed under its former own- ership. Charles A. Otis, in 1907, combined his paper, the "Cleveland World," with the evening "Plain Dealer" and the "Evening News" to form the "Cleveland News," an evening newspaper. The "Cleveland News" was later sold to Mr. Hanna. The "Sunday News-Leader" is now the Sunday edition of the "News." It is housed in the Leader-News Building, one of Cleveland's finest business structures. The ''Cleveland Press" was printed for the first time as "The Penny Press." It was founded by E. W. Scripps and John S. Sweeney. "The Press" grew with a rapidity that resulted in a chain of papers owned by Scripps-McRae. In 187b, Cleveland had fourteen papers in- cluding the dailies and weeklies. Cleveland, today, has fourteen dailies of which four are in a foreign language. Over fifty-five weekly publi- cations are issued in Cleveland and sixteen of these are in a foreign tongue. 94 Cleveland's golden story The Cleveland newspapers, like Euclid Ave- nue, Cleveland's golden facade, have changed to meet the temper of the times from the local to the cosmopoHtan spirit which makes a city big and friendly. ■:^r CHAPTER IX FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES CLEVELAND'S GOLDEN STORY CHAPTER IX FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES HE publishers of this Httle work enter- tain for it the hope that it will inspire the writing of other books dealing with the forces which are making Cleveland a People's University. Cleveland is teaching its citizens to live more abundantly. In the ideal city that Cleveland tokens to be, everyone is at once an instructor and a student. And it seems to us that the text-book of this mighty school is the Constitution of the United States. Instead of simply harboring institutions, as the river's mouth receives its ships, Cleveland is using them consciously and directly for the benefit of its citizens. The city's churches, from the old Stone Church standing sentinel on the Square, to the vaulted cathedrals, are enlisted in the effort to 98 CLEVELAND*S GOLDEN STORY Americanize, to utilize every soul within the city's gates. Cleveland is the first city to have its churches thus controlled through a central church organ- ization. Four hundred and ten Cleveland churches are extending their area of influence intelligently and eflFectively. Ninety-five per cent of the Protestant churches are federated. The Moravians were the earliest religionists to settle near Cleveland. The EpiscopaHans held the first religious services in the frontier town. By 1830, three churches had been erected. The presence of the church in the settle- ment in the clearing served as a reminder of the Word. Today institutional churches are fortresses in the war on the evil influences that fatten on a growing city. Such architectural triumphs as Trinity Cathedral, the Euclid Avenue Jewish Temple and the Saint Agnes Catholic Church, which stand in their majesty, are permanent re- minders of the reverential attitude of a great city. Cleveland is a good parent. There are seven- teen agencies for the care and protection of children in the city. There are fresh air camps, dispensaries, hospitals and visiting nurse asso- ciations. The settlement houses — Hiram House, Alta House and Goodrich House give "courage to the army of the disappointed.'' They renew faith. FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES 99 educate and refine. Cleveland's eighty charity societies are responsible to a controlling welfare organization established in 1913. In Cleveland, to give is to help a man to help himself. In 1 8oOj Cleveland built its first school near Kingsbury's run. Another school for children opened in 1802 in Major Carter's "front room." From this humble but sincere beginning, the educational forces of Cleveland have gathered strength and influence until the public school system ranks with the first ten in America. Night schools and manual training courses supplement the general work. The name of the Western Reserve is perpetu- ated in the University — the finest tribute which could possibly have been paid to the New England men who developed Ohio. The Con- necticut men were school men. Moses Cleave- land was a son of Yale. Western Reserve University is educating its own historians. In instituting its Adelbert College, the Col- lege for Women, the Medical College, the Graduate School, Franklin T. Backus Law School, Dental School, School of Pharmacy, the Library School, and the School of Social Sci- ences, Western Reserve University has made rapid strides. Today, in co-operation with the Advertising Club, it has an extension school, one of the most practical advertising schools in the world. lOO CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY The property of Western Reserve Univ^ersity is valued at ten million dollars — perhaps the best investment that any community could make. And science has not been forgotten, for in 1 88 1 was founded the Case School of Applied Science. In founding this school, Leonard Case Jr. carried out the wishes of his father from whom had come the gift for a school in which Cleveland youth could thoroughly master the sciences. Cleveland with its varied industries offers splendid opportunity for the practical application of scientific problems. The talented engineers who have been gradu- ated from Case School stand as examples, telling why this institution holds such a high rank among American scientific schools. It is now hoped and planned that a merger of the Case School of Applied Science and Western Reserve University will be effected. The welding of these two useful schools is in the Une of good management. Combination courses between the Case and Western Reserve schools are now available. Cleveland's public libraries are work-a-day hives of knowledge — not mausoleums of liter- ature. In one year three million four hundred thousand books were circulated by Cleveland's libraries. It has always been considered that leisure was required for reading. And yet sta- tistics show that Cleveland's busy folk are the FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES lOI most consistent readers in America. One out of every four Clevelanders is a book-borrower — a record not equalled in other cities. The Cleveland library started with a selection of books on the second and third floors of the old Central High School. When this building was destroyed, the Hbrary went to the City Hall. It now occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the Kinney and Levan Building, awaiting its per- manent home — a temple of the intellectual graces to be erected as part of the group plan on the mall. The main Hbrary has more than three hun- dred thousand volumes, and with its branches, 625,000 books. The Cleveland system with its fifty branches and 650 agencies is the third largest library system in the country. The Alta House, a combined library and settlement house, is the gift of John D. Rocke- feller. Many of the branch libraries are evidences of the generosity of Carnegie. The open shelf idea originated in Cleveland — the Cleveland library being the first large library to give free access to its shelves. The efforts of the Cleveland Art Museum in bringing to the city rare specimens of the applied and fine arts, ancient and modern, will do much to make Cleveland an Athens-on-the-Lake. Under the direction of Mr. Frederick Allen Whiting, director of the Art Museum, there I02 Cleveland's golden story exists between the Art Museum, the city's schools and the community a unique relation- ship. The. new museum building, permanent be- cause built in undying style, was completed in 1 91 6. The museum building was made possible by bequests of Horace Kelley and John Hunt- ington. A bequest from H. B. Hurlbut has given a purchasing fund. The Cleveland School of Art, founded by Mrs. S. M. Kimball, now has a permanent home on Juniper road and Magnolia Drive. Henry Turner Bailey, dean of the Cleveland School of Art, has done much to endear him to Cleveland art lovers. He is closely allied with every movement for the beautifying of the city. His word as an art critic is highly regarded. Cleveland is one of the half-dozen cities in America giving popular support to a symphony orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra, although recently formed, compares favorably with the best orchestras of this country. The Singers' Club of Cleveland, a company of those who sing for the pleasure they may give, has developed many notable artists. The club has sent forth to the Metropolitan Opera House members whose names symbol golden song. The publicity voice of the city will function directly through the new Convention Hall. The great renaissance building, which is now on its FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES I03 way to completion, will have a seating capacity in the arena of twelve thousand people, the thea- tre or concert hall of two thousand seven hundred and the ball room of one thousand six hundred. There will be six halls accommodating from one hundred to ^ve hundred auditors each. The stage is located between the arena and the theatre to be used by both and thus viewed by fifteen thousand people. Cleveland will bid for the conventions which name Presidents and make history. Cleveland's clubs have contributed their quota of culture to the city's life. There is the stately Union Club, the liberal City Club, the progressive Athletic Club, the unique Hermit Club, the bibliopegistic Rowfant, the University Club, the Tavern Club and the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, where the hounds are followed after the romantic manner of the Virginia fathers. Cleveland is justly proud of its women's clubs — organizations that are full of helpful activities. Among other clubs of power for women are the Woman's Club, the Women's City Club and several progressive organizations for business women. Cleveland stands as a leader among the cities of the nation in its women's suffrage activities — not a small amount of the progress of this great movement having been possible through the able leadership of Clevelanders. I04 CLEVELAND S GOLDEN STORY When the New York Bureau of Municipal Research took a vote in thirty leading cities as to which commercial body had achieved the most for its town, industrially and socially, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce won the bay leaves. One of the most potent forces in the city is the West Side Chamber of Industry. Without her banks Cleveland could tell no golden story. They have guarded the city's accumulations and extended a helping hand to strugghng business with a wise paternal care. Cleveland's first commercial bank was the organization now known as the National City, which was founded in 1845. Today there are forty-one chartered banks in the city, not including the hundreds of branches, private banking and brokerage houses. The Society for Savings, by encouraging sensible economy, anticipated the Government's thrift campaigns of the present day as far back as 1849. The head of the Society for Savings is Myron T. Herrick, former Governor of Ohio and after- wards Ambassador to France. Cleveland's bank- ers have been entrusted with numbers of important missions for the nation. Cleveland has given to New York one of its most discerning banking executives in the person of former Senator Theodore E. Burton. Cleveland be- came a Federal Reserve city in 1914 — the FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES IO5 capital of Federal Reserve District number four. The city's hostelries, mellow in memories, deserve a book of "Friendly Cleveland Taverns." There was the old American House, where Abra- ham Lincoln addressed the people, and the hospitable Stillman, which stood for a long time where the Statler now reigns. The lobby of the Hollenden calls forth recol- lections of the great and good men who have been its guests. If an old-time visitor should come out of a Rip Van Winkle sojourn in the valley and arrive at the Public Square in search of a tavern, he would not be disappointed. For in place of the old Forest City House, there is the Hotel Cleveland. The Hotel Winton honors itself by bearing the name of the city's eminent automobile designer. It is said that Cleveland's population doubles every twenty years. By one concerted movement of its suburbs, it could make a bid for place in the population figures of American cities that would be dramatic. The city's important suburbs. East Cleveland, the Heights and Lakewood, are municipalities of themselves and therefore can- not be included in Cleveland's census compi- lations. Cleveland has not forgotten that fresh air and sunshine and a glimpse of growing things are as necessary as office buildings and factories to a io6 Cleveland's golden story city's strength. It has forty-three miles of boulevards and two thousand six hundred and seventy-three acres of park and meadow. Cleveland goes about the business of recon- struction as blithely as if the city's resources of men and money had not been tapped by war. The fact is that Cleveland gave not only men to bear arms, but men to bear burdens. Supplementing the fighting men, many of Cleveland's biggest executives abandoned, for the time, their private interests and went into the service of the nation. A former Mayor of Cleveland, Newton D. Baker, is Secretary of War. Cleveland pioneered the collective campaign idea, and was one of the first American cities to provide a war chest. Cleveland accepted and over-subscribed in every Liberty Loan a quota based not on her resources but on her enthusi- asm. Cleveland's factories became arsenals. The Cleveland Advertising Club, by common consent in advertising circles the most vigorous publicity organization in the country, has set sail on a marvellous expedition. With several other organizations it is about to advertise Cleveland not only to the world, but to its own people. When the newspapers were first issued in Cleveland, they were delivered on horseback as far as Painesville and announced, in the case of FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES I07 the ^'Herald/' by the blowing of a horn. The Cleveland Advertising Campaign Committee, numbering some of Cleveland's most active citizens, is about to blow Cleveland's horn loud enough to be heard around the world. And we imagine that the committee will use a golden horn to tell Cleveland's golden story. The advertising committee intends to advise the world that through the deepening and widening of the Welland Canal to the St. Lawrence River, Cleveland will become an international sea-port. Then piers at East Ninth Street perhaps will say bon voyage to oceanic traffic. Tropical products used in tires and other goods will be distributed from Cleve- land. The advertising campaign will encourage new enterprises to come to the city, accelerate the building of homes, attract labor to Cleveland and publicize the city as a national leader in "progress, prosperity, philanthrophy and public spirit." We can well leave to the Advertising Club the media and means of setting this infor- mation before the world. What concerns us here is the spirit. And the Cleveland spirit is that of a man who has found his work. Cleveland is frankly desirous of success. But more than this — the city covets the world's friendship. Most of all, Cleveland wants the city's children to be happy. io8 Cleveland's golden story Cleveland looks to its future. Soon its interior transportation might not only be a problem but a puzzle. The city council has approved a fifteen miUion dollar bond issue for a subway on Euclid to East 22nd Street and west through to the bridge. Hall Caine recently told an American woman who visited him on the Isle of Man, that he re- members the length and steepness of the hill above the Lake Shore Station at Cleveland on a stormy night. If the illustrious Manxman again visits Cleveland, and not too soon, he will arrive at a Pantheon-like station on the Public Square, ranking with the terminals of Manhattan, which competent critics believe are its chiefest archi- tectural beauties. Maurice Maeterlinck, on his recent visit to Cleveland, in contemplating and visualizing in his poet's mind the group plan and the mall, said that Cleveland awakened an interest in him, reminiscent of his beloved Paris. For the mall, flanked by the institutions which represent law, order, education and art, will typify the Cleve- land spirit. Here the courthouse, city hall, auditorium and library are being arranged in a plan avowedly the glory of American municipal achievement. Cleveland's golden story is to be continued. Other men in other times, standing aloof will look with judicial eyes and estimate the worth FOR OTHER BOOKS IN OTHER TIMES IO9 of Cleveland and her people. Who may now presume to reconcile such divergent characters as Mark Hanna, maker of national policies and Tom L. Johnson, civic leader, both of whom loved and labored for Cleveland ? Lord Beaconsfield said: "A great city whose image dwells on the memory of man is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; faith hovers over Jerusalem; and Athens em- bodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world-art." Cleveland typifies the Nazarene ideal that a city is a home in which the health and happi- ness of the individual is a public concern. If the writer of this narrative were asked to set forth Cleveland's great idea, he would employ but two words — Cleveland cares, Cleveland will grow richer but not scornful, more powerful but not ungentle, more illustrious but not forgetful. And for this ideal, Cleve- land's image will ever dwell like a kindly light on the hearts of men. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 009 933 394 7